About Me

I am a Christian, wife of 28 years to an amazing man, and mom to identical triplet girls in college. I came to know Christ through Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), and it is a ministry near and dear to my heart. I was in leadership at BSF for 14 years as a Substitute Teaching Leader, Group Leader, Children's Leader, and Class Secretary. I am also a certified childbirth educator and infant massage instructor. Besides having a passion for the Lord and sharing Him with others, I am also passionate for art, and I love to help and share with other paper crafters and artists. I enjoy doing layouts of all sizes, art journaling, cards, mixed media, ATCs, altered art, etc. I love it all!

In accordance with FTC16CFR, Part 255, I declare that I currently receive or have received free products or am paid a fee to promote and endorse for free from the following companies: Canvas Corp Brands, Memory Box Co., Blue Fern Studios, Our Daily Bread Designs, Spellbinders Paper Arts, Stampin' Things, and Scrapbook.com. These companies generously supply me with complimentary products and/or a paid fee for promotional purposes. My enthusiasm in promoting their products does not stem from the fact that I am compensated by them, but because I truly love their products and feel their product lines and services to be superior in this industry.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Okay, don't kill me! I changed my unmounted stamp storage. Sometimes with organization, you will organize something then find you don't like it. It happens to me every now and then, and it can be frustrating but in the end when you have an organization method you love, it is worth it. Of course I am still using my Stampin' Station and keeping my mounted stamps, inks, embossing powders, etc., in that; however, the CD cases for my unmounted stamps just were not working. The CD cases were really too small. I ended up having three or more cases per stamp kit. Plus my bins that I store them in are super long, and there was a lot of wasted space. We can't have that! :) Anyway, I found these amazing acrylic boxes by See D's (Inque Boutique) that measure 9 1/4" x 5 3/4" x 1/2". They are long, perfect width, fit an entire stamp kit, and are amazing! Here is what they look like in my bins: Right now, I have 27 unmounted stamp kits stored in 21 of these acrylic boxes. If you don't remember what my bins are, you can see that here. I have not even counted how many actual stamps there are but it is a LOT. In this one case alone, there are 32 Unity stamps from the Birds of a Feather kit. One the side of each case, I put the name of the stamp kit. Then I store them in alphabetical order. It is so very easy to find what I am looking for now, and I am using more of my stamps. I also have a picture of each kit on the inside front cover of each acrylic box. I use my Kokuyo adhesive to stick the picture to the inside front cover. Works perfect.Some cases even contain two stamp kits! I really get a lot of storage out of these longer boxes. Now I am in the process of creating a Microsoft Excel file which lists where I can find all butterflies, all flowers, all birds, etc. The list looks something like this:

The list makes it very easy to grab those particular kits and see which butterfly, for instance, I want to use. I am really loving this new method! I hope you enjoy it too. Now I guess I should tell you where you can purchase these acrylic boxes. My favorite place to buy them is from Addicted to Rubber Stamps. I can always get a great sale but currently they are out of stock. I have talked with them, and they have reordered them but cannot give me a date when they will arrive. There are four of these acrylic boxes per set that you order so they run about $1.40 a box. I don't think that's bad because the CD cases can run about the same maybe just a few cents less. Now, since Addicted to Rubber Stamps is currently out of them and I need more, I ordered some recently from another store. It is called ScrapBeach. They shipped within a couple of days of placing my order but I did not get a sale. Oooh, I hate that. Oh well, when you are desperate, you know how that goes. Ha!

I plan on storing all of my acrylic stamps this way too. That's why I need more boxes plus I am always buying more Unity Stamps. :) I hope this is helpful to you. Enjoy, and happy organizing!

13 comments:

Patter, your organization is amazing! This is a system that would definitely work for me. I have just a few Unity sets and a couple of Kim Hughes sets (they are big) so I will be getting these longer cases!! Thank you!!!!

Hi, Patter - you are my inspiration! I just (as in, like 2 days ago) came across your other organization system! I think it was referenced on SCS this week... anyway, I really like this new set-up so much better. I was playing w/my unmounted sets this AM before work and pondering "just what am I going to do???" I think I now have my answer... You are so thorough - how much time did it take you to put this latest set-up together?

Dear Patter, I am new to your blog and you may have already covered this. I use the thin crop in style paper dividers to mount all of my foam stamps (velcro). They are easy to find and stand up nicely in the skinny paper holders. Keep up the wonderful work!!

This is perfect! I just received my order tonight and thought of putting them on acetate sheets in binders but I will hold off because I think this IS THE WAY TO GO!!! Thanks so much for sharing. I appreciate it.

I found your blog by doing a google search for the long clear storage boxes. I LOVE them and ordered a bunch from I. Boutique but they were bought out and I never got my order. By any chance do you have a new source? I checked Addicted to Rubber Stamps too and they no longer carry them. Thanks for your help with this!